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<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=Windows-1252"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 14px; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><div><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Hey DANCE partners,</span></div><span id="OLK_SRC_BODY_SECTION"><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Calibri; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><br></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Calibri; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">It's a new academic year, and we have some exciting events on the horizon. First, the set of resources available from the DANCE website for use in course development is growing. Check it out at<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://dance.cs.cmu.edu">http://dance.cs.cmu.edu</a>. </div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Calibri; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><br></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Calibri; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">We spent the summer developing a vision for a suit of xBlocks we hope to release progressively over the next year, beginning with a new discussion forum xBlock that we plan to release in early October. We have some partners at MIT, Davidson College, Teacher's College, the Smithsonian Institute, and the Community Colleges of California system that we are partnering with on course development efforts. Let us know if you'd like to collaborate with us on introducing team based experiences or other group learning experiences in your online courses.</div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Calibri; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><br></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Calibri; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">We were also recently awarded a 2 million dollar NSF grant to study large scale discourse through computational modeling approaches for the purpose of identifying empirically grounded design principles for effective support of collaboration in online settings. Find out more at<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://dance.cs.cmu.edu/Cocoa.html">http://dance.cs.cmu.edu/Cocoa.html</a>.</div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Calibri; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><br></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Calibri; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">You won't want to miss the next in our online DANCE talk series happening tomorrow. Thursday, September 10 at 11.00 EDT. Joseph Jay Williams from HarvardX is going to talk about "MOOClets - A Framework for Enhancing and Personalizing Online Education”.</div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Calibri; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><br></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Calibri; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">As usual, you can find more information about the speaker and his talk on the DANCE website under<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://dance.cs.cmu.edu/talks/talk5.html">http://dance.cs.cmu.edu/talks/talk5.html</a></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Calibri; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">Our next scheduled speakers include Amy Ogan, Jessica Hammer, and the world famous Pierre Dillenbourg.</div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Calibri; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><br></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Calibri; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">All the best,</div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Calibri; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">Oliver and Carolyn</div></span></body></html>